Facilitating meaningful online learning for adult learners

This thesis investigated the online learning experience with the web-enhanced learning support for adult learners from a socio-technical perspective. A central focus of the study was to understand the use of web-enhanced learning methods in facilitating meaningful online adult learning. The perspectives of students, lecturers, and the instructional designers were investigated in order to understand how to facilitate meaningful online adult learning in higher education. Three research questions were investigated: (1) What are the factors affecting meaningful online adult learning? (2) In what ways do these factors mediate online adult learning? (3) How can web-enhanced learning methods facilitate meaningful online adult learning? In addressing the research questions, a case study methodology was applied involving students and teachers in Hong Kong and Australia. This research adopted a two phase approach. The first phase involved surveying 525 participants in 2002- 2003 and 2005-2006 to identify the influential factors leading to meaningful online learning. The second phase was about conducting three case studies using semi-structured interviews with fifteen participants in 2007-2008. The participants consisted of students, teachers and industry clients from Hong Kong and Melbourne.